Edible Leeds - Wild Food Foraging Courses and 4 Wild Seasons Pop Up Dining Events

As some of you will know, spring heralds the return of the wild alliums; Wild Garlic, 3 Cornered Leek, Few Flowered Leek, Chives, Rosy Garlic, Crow Garlic and others. Wild Alliums, in particular, the first 3 species from the above list, receive much attention from me as they are super prolific in areas that I frequently forage. Not only are they super abundant, they are exceptionally tasty and extremely versatile, providing plenty opportunity for a raft of dishes and preserves. Annual Allium tasks that keep me busy during spring are the creating of; pesto's, flavoured oils, lacto-fermentations, protein curds, flavoured butters, pickles and flavoured salts (using smoked and dehydrated leaves). I also love creating simple and tasty dishes from the fresh leaves, unopened flower heads, open flowers and seeds, in raw form and cooked. So far this season (April 2021), I've made and crafted;  2.5kg Wild Garlic Pesto 1.5kg Few Flowered Leek Pesto 1kg Lacto-fermented Few Flowered L...

I have very fond memories of gathering Dandelion leaves as a child in order to feed them to my pet rabbits, of picking the full flowers and racing around the local park, arms outstretched, imagining myself an airplane and using my thumbs to flick the flowerhead missiles clasped tightly in my hands. I remember picking the furry looking, globe-shaped seed heads, taking a deep breath and then exhaling fiercely in an attempt to magically synchronise the number of exhales with the time of day and of peeling the hollow stems, to see how many thin strips I could reduce it to while occasionally touching the very tip of my tongue to the white sap and then recoiling in humour-fuelled-horror at the extremely bitter flavour: happy days! I hope those of you reading this remember your early memories with dandelion?   As I grew older, my attention turned to more pressing, age-related activities, mischief and social norms and I slowly began to forget those days of simple, innocent play and wo...

Wild mushrooms have a special place in my heart. My wild food and foraging journey stemmed from an interest in them before branching out into plants and seaweeds. The 'silent hunt', as Antonio Carluccio so beautifully and aptly put it, is one of my favourite things. To find yourself at ease, wandering and treading gently, on the fringes of or deep within and beneath, the multi-layered, multi-coloured patchwork of woodland canopies, or in ancient meadows, in anticipation of the sometimes elusive, yet always magical and mysterious organisms that comprise the 5th kingdom is a pure delight. Fungi are truly fascinating, yet the great majority of the uk population have yet to discover just how awesome, intriguing, fascinating and tasty they can be. Most people think the best time of year for finding wild mushrooms is in the 'autumn' and, although there is some truth in this, it's not the whole truth. Spring, summer and winter can prove very fruitful (fung-ful) when it ...

If you are lucky and live close to the sea, especially in striking distance of a shingle beach, then you may just find Sea Kale... As far as coastal edibles go, Sea Kale rocks: it's a true delight! Throughout the winter you will detect very little in the way of signs indicating if Sea Kale is present as it spends the winter tucked up, snugly, beneath the shingle awaiting the Spring. The first signs of life generally begin in early spring (in mild winters it may appear earlier), when the tiniest of shoots, wake from their wintry slumber and start to force their way up through the shingle and, as the season progresses, more and more shoots appear. The leaves, whether new or mature, come in an assortment of varied and magnificent colours (see image top right): greens, purples, reds, greys and lilacs. They are crinkly edged and become more open and rounded edged with age. Eventually, the flowering shoots appear on thick, tender, circular stalks and look remarkably similar to pu...

Wow! What a wonderfully, flavour packed herb Common Sorrel is! This super-delicious plant really doesn't get half the attention or culinary kudos it so rightly deserves. Aside from it's mouth-watering, citrusy, super tart and punchy taste profile, it's easy to identify, abundant and very versatile in the kitchen, forming the base of many an amazing dish whether savoury or sweet. Identification and Habitat: Common Sorrel has a preference for grassy areas; meadows, waste ground, fields and gardens. Each plant produces numerous leaves and can therefore be treated like cut and come lettuce (continuously producing leaves, except when in flower/seed stage).  Common Sorrel (as with Sheep Sorrel) has very obvious identification features and it's wise to spend time familiarising yourself with these. One particularly stand-out feature is the distinctive 'split' located at the base of each leaf, instead of attaching to the leaf stem, it splays out, akin to a snakes to...

It really is one of those 'love, hate' relationships, depending on which side of the proverbial fence you find yourself. Personally, I love Japanese Knotweed. I love it's potential as a diverse food & drink resource, I'll delve deeper into that arena later. I also find it to be a striking and handsome plant. I've read some very interesting academic, scientific and medicinal literature, both mainstream and non, which raised many a question regarding Japanese Knotweed; how it's perceived professionally, and thus culturally, and how this determines and affects it's subsequent treatment by humans. I heartily recommend the book 'The New Wild' by Fred Pearce - a book all nature lovers, conservationists and environmentalists should consider reading. Like so many, I too was led to believe that Japanese Knotweed aka Fallopia japonica was a botanical nightmare, especially with regards to its reportedly negative impacts on our beautiful countrys...

They look stunning against the blue spring sky & their aesthetic beauty is only part of their magic, for sakura blossoms hide a tasty secret... The season is short, maybe a couple of weeks and, as is the case with certain other wild edibles, blink and you miss it. The stage at which to gather is prior to the full blooming of the blossoms, when they are in their 'waking' phase (not as pictured on the right, these are too advanced for salt preserving but are perfect for making cherry blossom syrup, more on that later. I prefer to pick the awakening buds (as with fully opened blossoms), on a warm, dry, sunny afternoon when the buds and blossoms have been gently warmed by the suns rays. Once gathered it's imperative you get them home and process them as quick as possible - no accidentally leaving them out on the kitchen work top in your basket! The Cherry Blossom, along with, Crysanthemum is the national flower of Japan and preserving the blossoms is an ancient, cult...

This not so wild, exotic, exuberant flower seems to have made itself quite at home in suburban gardens around the UK. Aside from it's stunning, colourful appearance, it's edible. Its flavour is somewhat exotic too, deeply floral and perfumed, with notes of peppery, ginger warmth, bitter chicory and a sort of creaminess to boot. Magnolia is from an ancient lineage of plants, apparently hanging loose prior to the appearance of bees and it's thought the flowers evolved to be pollinated by beetles. With over 200 species among it's ranks, it has a large ancestry. From what I can gather, all species are edible and I've read/heard nothing to counter this. The flowers usually develop and open in mid spring (I've mostly gathered them previously in the month May) but the unseasonably warm winter weather, particularly the mercury scorching 20 degree temperatures we experienced toward the end of February (2019), led to an early flowering of this beautiful plant. ...